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Park People www.parkworld-online.com


Harry


Potter broke all the rules and won, in a major way. That’s a lesson for the industry – break out of the normal yardsticks that the executives hold up as margins for failure, don’t be afraid to be bold, and perhaps you will be wildly rewarded


more European. I am happy to say chairman Francis Lui stuck with the original vision and the results have been spectacular. In less than a year, the Galaxy has become one of the three most profitable casinos in this Special Administrative Region of China, and winner of “World’s Best Casino/Integrated Resort” at the International Gaming Awards in London.


Are there many projects that didn’t go according to plan? At Landmark we did all of the concept and design through to schematic work for Jurassic Park: The Ride at Islands of Adventure, however Universal hired away several key people and decided to produce it on their own. While I think a lot of that ride came out well, I have always felt that they never fully succeeded in getting the completely immersive atmosphere that we had envisioned.


Then there was SS Admiral. Six Flags disagreed with our concept to transform a former ship into a floating showpiece in St Louis, Missouri. We envisioned a place that would reignite memories for locals that rode that vessel went up and down the river, with added live entertainment, restaurants, clubs and bars. The company actually wanted to create a kind of “theme park without rides” – ball crawls for the kids, animatronic shows; the kind you would see in the nearby Six Flags park. There are times when you simply have to say no to the client, even if it means walking away, and this was one of them.





You are working on some very exciting resort projects in Asia and Eastern Europe, but is there also a danger of some projects being simply too ambitious to be built or survive once open? Well of course that is always a possibility. We are working on four mega theme parks in China right now – all destination resorts with hotels, waterparks and all the other offerings a destination resort


requires. I am not sure all of them will be built, but two of them have already started construction. Everyone wants a Disney or Universal scale park, but they don’t understand the complexities of running and operating these kind of large enterprises. We have a great understanding and appreciation for the operations side of things and do our best to work up concepts and plans that have all the basics – back of house, tech support as required and notes on operation requirements. And we always try to bring in teams to show the kind of operating personnel and planning required.


What new technology or story-telling technique most excites you right now? I don’t think we’ve scratched the surface of 4D attractions yet. After Terminator 2 3-D and Spider- Man at Universal, we had something with the X-Men which would have been yet another leap forward. For a while, Universal’s corporate culture shifted away from 3D/4D and back to more traditional approaches to things; coasters, a shooting gallery ride, and so on. It was good to see that with Harry Potter, they shifted back into a more adventurous role – and of course it helped that the IP owner was able to force a level of quality and detail that I think would have been lacking had it been a straight ahead licence. Having the motion picture art director on as the final say in terms of quality and design added such a great degree of integrity and detail to that project. Harry Potter broke all the rules and won, in a major


way. That’s a lesson for the industry – break out of the normal yardsticks that the executives hold up as margins for failure, don’t be afraid to be bold, to create things the world has never experienced before, and perhaps you will be wildly rewarded.


What’s next? We are at work now on a spectacular new project in Macau which, when it opens, I am confident will become the number one destination there (with The Galaxy becoming a strong number two of course). Or perhaps they will vie for market supremacy which would be fine with me as well! We are also putting a big new 4D attraction into production. This standalone venue will be like nothing else in the world and it will be located in the heart of Times Square in New York. Whatever we do, whether it’s a ride, a resort, a Broadway show or a movie, I am always trying to give people that sense of wonder. It’s like a great magic trick really – How did they do that? Did you see that? That was so amazing! You have to go and see this!


garygoddard.com The Goddard-designed Galaxy in Macau, recently voted “World’s Best Casino/Integrated Resort” 24


For news of some of Gary Goddard’s other upcoming projects see bit.ly/ADsEcK


FEBRUARY 2012


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